


Let's live for today

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 5+1 Things, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Bleeding Edge armour, Everyone Is Alive, Happy, Happy Ending, Loki & Tony Stark Friendship, M/M, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Pre-Slash, everyone is happy okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-28 08:24:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14445261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The 5 times Loki returns to Earth and the one time Tony decides to leave Earth.Post Infinity War but no spoilers for Infinity War Part 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I have not seen Infinity War, and this was written and the first draft completed before the movie came out. It was my attempt at pre-emptive healing (actually thats the name of it in my documents XD) because I had the horrible feeling that it was going to be needed. 
> 
> That being said. I know what happens in IW. I actively sought out spoilers and then I edited it to what it is now with knowing these spoilers. But I still don't believe this classifies as IW spoilers since this is basically my story to stick a finger up at marvel and just. have. everyone. happy. damn it. 
> 
> Tony's bleeding edge armour I based off of info from the comic wiki page and Extremis Tony Stark. But only a brief look. I don't expect it to be accurate at all. 
> 
> And a thank you to **STARSdidathing** for looking this over for me and for joining me in the total denial of IW and it's angsty feels! 
> 
> So I hope you enjoy!

1.

 

Thanos is chaos. His attack comes with a style of hit hard and then hit harder. it seems like the whole of New York has caved beneath the enormous pressure that Thanos’s army rains down on the earth so that there are hardly any identifiable landmarks left to tell Tony he's flying over the city he had called home. Streets and buildings are just rubble below him, and Tony's gut clenches thinking about the similar scenes that must have happened in other areas of the world, because unlike Loki's invasion, Thanos had attacked everywhere, his forces spreading out over the globe like a biblical plague. 

 

“Friday, how’s the connection looking?” Tony asks, flying low over the ground. He's tired. So damn tired. The almost continuous ache in his left arm that he had been dealing with for months skyrocketed to pain levels that had Tony admitting defeat and asking Friday to inject him with the suit's built in pain-killers. Which he's glad he did because he's pretty sure the pain-killers are the only thing allowing to continue to fly the suit with the amount of bruising, hopefully not fractures, that he's sustained in the battle. He's actually scared to ask Friday to give him a scan and a list of all the injuries he feels like he has at the minute. 

 

But there's still stuff to do. 

 

“No damage sustained, power output steady at 40%,” Friday answers and Tony gives a sigh of relief. Well at least that's some sort of miracle. The nicknamed bleeding edge armour has held up pretty damn well, the nano technology pushing it's limits with the self repair but still keeping up. 

 

“Keep the connection showing.”

 

The percentage output and armour integrity blinks up onto the HUD and Tony pulls the suit up, shooting upwards as he sees one of the Chitauri vessels race through the air. Blasting up behind them, he engages the energy blade, slicing directly into the vessel’s power source. The craft goes careening towards the ground, a small fire exploding into a bigger one before it even hits the earth. Tony pulls up, hovering in the air, watching the show.

 

Thanos had hit hard and relentlessly, but the world’s heroes had prevailed. Thanos had been defeated and now it was just clean up. He's about to take off again, leveling the suit out into a more horizontal position, when the comms in his helmet flare to life. 

 

“Stark? Are you enjoying the view?”

 

Tony resists the groan that very nearly escapes his lips. “Fri, view from back node.”

 

Friday obliges immediately, pulling up the feed from the camera he had inserted into each of the suit’s nodes, granting him a 360 degree view around him.

 

“Loki,” he greets, watching the mage sit cross-legged on the back of his suit “Decide to join the party on earth?”

 

“Well, all the ships have turned tail and fled, up in space,” Loki informs him while taking out a dagger and casually beginning to clean his nails with it. “I thought you could use some help down here, since you have failed to deal with all the stragglers by yourself.”

 

“A pleasure as always, speaking with you, Loki,” Tony says but finds himself grinning.

 

When Thor had arrived, bringing with him the remains of Asgard and surprisingly Bruce, Tony had been curious and happy. But their arrival also came with the arrival of Loki. The Trickster God had descended from Thor's ship with a smirk and a swagger that had Tony watching him out of the corner of his eye every time they were in the same room together.

 

But it only took a day of looking to realise that the Loki that had attacked Earth, had murdered and schemed and lashed out with angry malice, was not the same one that stood at Thor’s side while planning their defence against Thanos.

 

Loki stood with a new kind of casual confidence, expression almost bored except for the sharp gaze he trained on everything and everyone that entered his vision. He spoke rarely in the meetings, instead flickering his gaze from speaker to speaker, until right at the very end when he would offer an opinion, and smirking when it would, more often than not be admitted to being a good plan, taking advantage of everyone's strengths and weaknesses with un-nerving accuracy. 

 

Tony had found his side-eyeing of the God, turn into curious gazes, that were returned with surprisingly equal curiosity, which turned into conversations that had Tony grinning when Loki bantered back just as quickly. By the time Thanos’s attack was due, Tony found himself spending more time with the God, allowing him down into the workshop where Loki would sit and meditate, gathering reserves of seidr, he said, while occasionally giving Tony advice on what adjustments he should make to the suit to better help him against Thanos. Tony ended up enjoying this time, appreciating the advice gotten from one that had experience dealing with Thanos once already and letting the preparation calm his nerves.

 

“I’ll just drop you off then,” Tony says and spins the suit, righting to see if he has managed to dislodge the mage.

 

A chuckling comes through the comms and Tony watches the empty air beneath him.

 

“Of course. Illusion. Damn magic,” Tony mutters.

 

“You’re showing your age, Stark,” Loki’s voice sounds smug through the comms. “Can’t quite keep up any more… well it’s not uncommon-”

 

“Fri, locate Loki,” Tony cuts off the rest of Loki’s reply.

 

“2 kilometres south of your position, Boss,” Friday’s reply comes after a couple of seconds. Tony immediately takes off to the position blinking on his interface.

 

He finds Loki in a circle of what must be the remaining troops of Thanos’s army that are still fighting because, well Tony doesn’t quite know the reason. Perhaps they don’t know their leader is defeated. Perhaps fighting is all they know. Or perhaps they have some code where they only get an honourable death if they die in battle, and retreating is a show of cowardice not approved of wherever they’re from.

Tony only guesses and for once, doesn’t have the desire to find out the answer.

 

“Save some for me, Lokes.” He lands roughly, sharp pain shooting up his legs as he botches the landing, but soon rights the suit and places himself back to back with Loki who twirls and embeds daggers into any alien that tries to stab it’s own weapon into Loki’s neck.

 

“Thought you’d never get here, Stark,” Loki says, knocking another alien clean out with a well aimed punch to its chest that sends the creature flying backwards.

 

“Thought I’d give you a head start,” Tony taunts back, aiming and firing repulsor blasts in rapid succession.

 

With the two of them it doesn’t take long to dispatch the rest of the Chitauri and other mixed races from distant alien planets.

 

When they finish, Tony collapses onto the ground. He's done. Not even the painkillers are helping the ache that seems to overtake his body all of a sudden. 

 

“Woo,” he halfheartedly pumps a fist in the air and allows the suit to disassemble back into him. “Good job! I’m just going to lay here for a while.”

 

“Still can’t keep up, Stark?” Loki’s face appears in his line of sight, a smirk on his face and smug mischief dancing in green eyes.

 

“Teleport?” Tony queries, with only a half hope that the mage will comply.

 

Loki’s smirk broadens but remains quiet.

 

“No?” Tony asks. “Come on! I’ll even buy you that drink I owe you.”

 

Loki’s only response is to leave Tony’s field of vision and the next thing Tony sees is the glaringly bright lights of the common room in the Avengers compound, that hadn't been destroyed, _huh_ Tony thinks, _that's lucky_. Loki had even teleported him onto one of the couches, the leather feeling like the softest pillow to his exhausted body.

 

“Thanks, Lokes,” Tony manages, before closing his eyes and allowing the bone deep exhaustion that he had been keeping at bay for days now, take over him, pulling him into sleep.

 

2.

 

Thanos is defeated. The battle is won. The world continues turning.

 

The accords are amended, bringing Captain America with his team back to the Avengers compound and T’Challa goes back to Wakanda, to be a King and Protector of his country.

 

The Guardians stick around for all the parties held in celebration of Thanos’s defeat, but after all the fun is had, they disappear back into space.

 

Thor and the Valkyrie decide to stay on Earth, at least for the time being, though Tony has heard that they too might travel off to other realms. Bruce, who seems to have had enough of other planets decides to stay on Earth, re-opening his lab in the Avengers compound and becoming Tony’s science-bro once again. Loki hasn’t been seen since he had teleported Tony to Avengers compound. Though not before apparently healing Tony of any and all injuries he had sustained judging by the amused look Bruce had given Tony when he awoken up, a solid 27 hours later.

 

As for Tony, he semi-retires. He’s not a part of the Avengers any more. But with the suit a literal part of him now, Tony can’t give up the superheroing business. He’s on an emergency contract only, to be called on if extreme circumstances allows it. Which, if he's honest with himself he hopes is a very long time from now. In the meantime, he does what he has always done. He builds. Stark Industries needs projects that he happily provides to them, and although he is not the main contact for the Avengers gear, he is considered a senior consultant to have input in the design on occasions.

 

He stays in the compound most of the time, with Rhodey and Vision and Bruce filling his days with a surprising amount of happiness. He goes over to Pepper’s every Sunday, where they both attempt to cook a roast. Their last attempt was almost edible. They don’t talk about S.I. on those days, instead telling each other little details about their lives and its good. Tony tells her about his and Rhodey’s prank war going on with Peter and Harley when they’re around on real Stark internships he had gotten them this time. Pepper talks about her project, subsidising entrepreneur training for school children with a desire to enter the business world but might not have the money to do it.

 

If he sees Steve or any of the old team in the hallway, he nods and gets a nod in return. It’s not okay. But after Thanos, they’ve moved on. The team has signed the amended accords and therefore, are the UN’s responsibility and Tony is all but happy to be free of them.

 

Life is good and Tony is happy, for perhaps the first time in his life.

 

“Loki?!”

 

Tony lands in the armour on a nondescript New-York street somewhere between where the fairly wealthy and the insanely wealthy live. As much as the devastation had looked like from the sky, New York had made Tony proud with how much it had survived and was pulling itself together again, people shrugging off the battle and rebuilding their lives with almost a daunting showmanship of strength. Calling all of the armour back except for one gauntlet covering his hand and forearm, he walks the rest of the way towards the surprising scene in front of him.

 

Spiderman stands on the side walk, keeping a wary distance away from the chancer who had gotten some alien tech during the clear up, and had decided to use it to try and increase his wealth. The technology surrounds the man in a shimmering blue forcefield that lashes out with bolts of energy any time someone goes near.

 

Tony had been monitoring the situation from the compound when a spike in energy that had nothing to do with the tech the guy had stolen, appeared behind Peter. Tony had immediately flown out when the cameras in Peter’s suit showed a certain Asgardian, leaning casually against a tree planted in the side walk, keeping one eye on the situation and the other on a heavy tome he has balanced in his hands.

 

“Stark,” Loki greets lifting his head briefly from the book to give him a nod.

 

Tony blinks and frowns.

 

“Nope, I’m coming up blank,” he says coming to a stop near Loki, but also keeping an eye on Peter. “What are you doing here?” he asks.

 

“Reading,” Loki replies, flicking over a page. “I would have thought that was obvious.” Just over the top of the book, Tony watches a smirk build on Loki’s face.

 

“Right, okay, I’m coming back to you.” Tony points a finger at Loki and walks past him and up to Peter.

 

“What’s the situation, Spidey,” Tony asks, watching in amusement as the wannabe baddie’s eyes widen at his appearance.

 

“Want to pack it in?” he calls out. “Turn yourself in now and you’ll be able to see your kids graduate college I reckon.”

 

The man’s mouth twitches but he clutches the bag of money closer to his chest and remains silent.

 

“Jeez.” Tony rolls his eyes.

 

“Mr Stark… Iron Man,” Spiderman greets in his typical awkward fashion. “The forcefield is impenetrable, and attacks with energy spikes, that Karen has calculated are high enough to short circuit my suit, if you approach within 1 metre of it.”

 

“Okay,” Tony says. “So then what’s the plan?”

 

“The forcefield is impenetrable,” Spiderman repeats. “Nothing can get out… or in.”

 

It clicks about two seconds before Peter finishes speaking. “So it’s really a waiting game,” he muses. “Good plan kid, have you run the numbers?”

 

“Yes, Mr Stark. He’ll run out of air in approximately 30 minutes, but lose consciousness in another 15 minutes. I’m here to make sure he doesn’t do any damage in the meantime.”

 

Tony smiles. “Good job,” he places his non-gauntleted hand on Peter’s shoulder, giving it a brief squeeze. “I’m going to hang back.” He moves off, back towards Loki who is regarding both him and Peter with a curious gaze. Tony smiles.

 

“So where have you been, Lokes?”

 

Loki switches his gaze to lay firmly on Tony, who rolls his eyes, more than used to the sharp gazes of the God when he’s figuring something out, by now. He joins Loki by his side and tilts his head, regarding the God right back.

 

Wherever Loki had been, it had agreed with him. The God was looking well. Dressed in Earth’s attire for once, he had donned a black leather jacket, that contrasted wonderfully with the plain white t-shirt underneath and dark blue jeans that make Loki's legs look like they go on for miles. All at once he's jealous of the obvious height Loki's outfit is very much showing off and admiring that height with a dry mouth.  _If I was 20 years younger,_ Tony thinks.

 

“Travelling,” Loki says and claps the book shut. Tony snaps his gaze back up to Loki’s face, from where it had dropped down to appreciate Loki’s new look, a guilty smile on his face that he doesn’t even try to hide.

 

“Travelling?” he repeats. “And they don’t have nice reading spots on these places you visited? Or you just miss good old New York? Want to reminisce the old invasion days?”

 

“Hardly,” Loki says with an upward twitch of his lips. Straightening up, he waves a hand and the book in his other hand disappears into the pocket dimension, Tony had gotten used to seeing him use by now.

 

“Actually, I came by to give you this.” With another complicated hand gesture, Loki suddenly has a small collection of gems resting in his palm. Tony blinks at Loki, head tilting for a fraction of a second as he regards the mage before him. But Loki’s face is impassive, not even a twitch of emotion showing. With a sigh, Tony leans closer, getting a closer look at the gems Loki’s holding out to him.

 

They’re pretty, Tony thinks. Shining in colours of white, gold and red, and in a variety of shapes, from small spheres to bigger hexagon cuts. But other than that, they seem unremarkable, something that could be picked up in a high-street jewellers. He straightens up, giving Loki an expectant look.

 

“Gems?” he says slowly, trying to get some answer from Loki.

 

Loki shifts forward, softly grabbing Tony’s wrist and pulling his arm towards his body. There’s amusement glinting in his eyes now. Tony is familiar with the look. A look that Tony had come to know as a prelude for some sort of mischief.

 

“Lokes?” Tony questions but feels a smile tug at his own lips. The mischief to happen around the compound just before Thanos’s battle, always seem to happen just as the morale of the team seemed to drop, the threat of Thanos seeming an impossible task before them, and Tony had come to enjoy the pranks.

 

“Relax, Stark,” Loki says and he tips the gems into Tony’s hand. “They’re just gems, as you say.” He looks up as he says this, expression open with the beginnings of laughter. Tony narrows his eyes at the mage, wondering at the double meaning that Loki seemed to imply with his words.

 

But before he can query further, Loki drops his fingers from Tony’s wrist and takes a step back. “Enjoy the gift, Stark,” he says and his form begins to shimmer.

 

“Oh,” Loki pauses, his form becoming solid again. “And I do believe I’ll be taking that.” A flash of green and there’s a yelp.

 

Tony turns just in time to see the device the man had been using to rob the shop come flying through the air and into Loki’s outstretched hand.

 

“Hey-” Tony starts, but Loki has already disappeared leaving behind only the impression of a wicked mischief filled grin. Tony sighs and turns back to the spluttering and now cowering man, and Peter who is still looking at the place where Loki had been.

 

“Umm...” Peter says and Tony just shakes his head.

 

“Don’t,” Tony says. “Web him up. Call the authorities. The police can handle this now.” He looks down at the gems still nestled in his palm. He smiles. “Fancy doing some science?” he asks.

 

3.

 

He can’t find anything peculiar about the gems. He has Friday analyse them and finds that the red ones are garnets, the gold ones, are well gold and the clear ones are celestine. In amongst of these, hidden and missed when Loki had tipped them into his hands was a small dusky brown gem, that Friday had identified as a type of quartz native to a region in Scotland. The quality of them were decent but they were crudely cut, so have little retail value.

 

He, Peter and Harley had all taken the afternoon to look at them, performing various tests and scans on them. But they gave off no identifiable energy, nor did they react with anything that wasn’t out of the ordinary for the types of gems that they were. Even Bruce had come to take a look, after he had gotten curious at their stumped faces. But no one could find anything out of the ordinary about them.

 

“Perhaps, Loki had just wanted to give you something pretty,” Bruce teased one day after several more unsuccessful tests. “I’ve heard that is what one does when showing a… romantic interest in a person.”

 

Tony had snapped his head up. Bruce was laughing. “I’m just saying. You and Loki did seem pretty close in the time before Thanos,” he says, still chuckling.

 

Tony rolls his eyes, going back to examining the gems. “Sure, that’s what Loki is doing. Performing some weird Asgardian courting ritual.” He frowns at the gems, glinting up at him, mocking him. “Beneath that shiny exterior, you’re hiding something,” he says to them and hears Bruce snort.

 

“Yeah, that just about sums Loki up,” he says and Tony conceded with a huff. “Fine, I officially give up for the day. Loki gave me jewelry, you win. Want to go grab some lunch?”

 

Bruce mocks a gasp. “Cheating on your Asgardian lover already. What will the papers say?”

 

Tony laughs. “Well it’s all been very boring stories recently. Politicians, and the continued rise of obesity. Thought I’d shake things up a bit,” he retorts.

 

So he and Bruce head off to lunch and the gems are left in their box on the corner of one of his workbenches. He forgets about them, unless the lab’s lights catch of the gems facets, causing a glint that would catch Tony’s eye and he’ll briefly wonder about them, the itch of suspicion that they’re not all what they seem getting stronger for a second before he delves back into one of his projects and they’re forgotten again.

 

Until Loki quite literally crashes into his life once again.

 

Tony is working on a new line of medical equipment for Stark industries, inspired by the work he did for Rhodey’s braces and admiring, from a distance, the new arm Wakanda had made Barnes. When there’s the sound of rushing wind and an alarmed shout from Friday.

 

“Boss!”

 

Tony swivels in his seat and stands up, armour already crawling and assembling over his body. He raises his arm, the whine of the repulsor powering up rising over the rushing of air.

 

There’s a portal, opening in his lab and Tony thinks, _not again_. His muscles tense in readiness and his left hand, the one not aimed at the expanding portal, clenches with tension.

 

It’s a long few tense seconds. But then the portal’s sound increases and Tony sees a blur of black and green falling through and landing with an audible slam on his lab floor. Dum-E rushes over, before Tony can even say something to stop him and douses whatever had landed in foam.

 

“Back, Dum-E!” Tony shouts. The bot whirs at him, lifting his claw, with fire extinguisher attached with a confused tilt. Tony gestures for him to back off, pointing with a stern fingers to return to his charging station. Dum-E leaves with a sad whine.

 

Ignoring his bot, Tony steps one cautious step closer. The portal has closed. It had disappeared as soon as the thing had fallen through, which Tony counts as a win. At least there’s only one to deal with. Edging closer he tries to get a closer look at whatever had fallen through. But Dum-E had been very enthusiastic with the foam, and it covers nearly every inch of the object. An object that seems to have no objection to this as Tony can’t spy any movement coming from it whatsoever.

 

Now standing next to it, Tony pokes his armour clad foot through the foam to poke at whatever lies underneath. It groans and Tony rapidly retreats, bringing his foot back in close to his body. 

 

Eyes widening as the sounds of pain continue to come, Tony bends down and begins to wipe the foam away. Leather, in shades of black and green come into view and Tony bites back at his own groan.

 

“Loki, what the hell?” he asks as soon he gets the foam away from the God’s face, but quickly retracts his hand as the reason for the god’s pain and Dum-E’s enthusiasm becomes clear. Loki’s eyes are closed and one half of his face is covered in burns. With a sigh, Tony briefly drops his head, muttering a curse and thinking, _why does the weird stuff always happen to me_.

 

“I think… I think, I may have pissed off the wrong people,” Loki says and Tony laughs.

 

“Isn’t that in your job description,” he retorts earning himself a chuckle from the god but which quickly turns into a wince as the movement pulls at the burnt skin. “Can you stand?” he asks. “I’ve a decontamination shower down here that can wash the foam off.

 

“Yes,” Loki nods and Tony can with some relief see the burns already beginning to heal. “Your robot was very enthusiastic.” He begins to stand himself up and Tony rises, holding out a hand to help him up.

 

“That just about sums him up,” Tony says with a look over to Dum-E who is not back in his charging station, but watching the two of them curiously. He beeps and rolls forward when he notices their attention on him. Tony holds up a hand and the bot stops.

 

“Friday, can you get the cleaner bots in here,” he asks.

 

“There’s no need,” Loki says before a green shimmer wraps around himself for a second and then Loki is standing there, completely clean of foam. Another wave of his hands and Tony’s lab is spotless, well apart from Tony’s general chaotic way of keeping the lab.

 

“Neat trick and okay, wow, you heal fast,” Tony comments. Loki's skin was still tinged a reddish colour, and there was still scarring showing across his forehead, but Tony could almost see the healing take place, that's how rapidly Loki was healing.  

 

Loki rolls his yes. “Of course,” he says. But then he turns to face Tony fully and Tony stops at the look he sees there. Loki is looking at him, almost as if he seems fond of Tony's cute mortal awe at his rapid healing. Tony could recognize Loki's shrewd and calculating expression by now, when he's putting together the pieces of a puzzle, be it him or magic. But this was a look that said, I don't have to figure you out, because I know who you are, I expected you to react like this and I like it. It's a fond look that Tony may have gotten acclimated to seeing on Rhodey's face, Pepper's... even on occasion, Bruce's. He doesn't quite know what to do with seeing it on Loki's face. 

 

So Tony swallows, ignoring the weird clench of his stomach and shrugs back at Loki. "Consider this mortal in awe of your supernatural healing abilities," he says and then turns away.

 

Tony walks back to his workbench, gesturing for Loki to follow him. He's just going to ignore it, whatever Loki's look was about and the way it makes his mouth go dry, he decides. He's can be good at ignoring things... sometimes. “So who’d you piss off this time?” he asks sitting down and picking up his half finished coffee, He turns back to Loki, looking at the mage over the rim of his cup. The god seems to have made himself comfortable, lifting himself on top of the workbench and folding his legs underneath him. It was a familiar pose to Tony by now, taking him back to pre-Thanos, when he, Bruce and Loki would discuss plans and science to ease the tension from their shoulders.

 

“Parents,” Loki answers.

 

“Parents,” Tony echoes. “Please tell me you didn’t kidnap a child?”

 

It’s only because Loki has Tony’s entire focus at the moment that he notices a flicker of emotion, something derisive, pass across Loki’s face. It happens for a fraction of a second, Tony would have missed it if he had blinked, before Loki’s face is staring at Tony, entirely unimpressed.

 

“Really, Stark?” he says and Tony laughs.

 

“Okay, so how _did_ you manage to piss off some parents then?”

 

Loki sighs and grimaces. “I may also be considered engaged to a young woman on Vanaheim.”

 

Tony grins and pulls his chair closer to Loki. He leans forward, eyes attentive on the God. “Oh now this I’ve got to hear.”

 

Loki glares at him but Tony’s grin only broadens. “Come on, Lokes. Spill.”

 

Tony tells the story gleefully to Bruce the next day over their current project. From Loki wanting to reclaim a magic tome that had once belonged to his mother, but was now in possession of a fire priestess on Vanaheim. To Loki getting caught in her personal rooms, where the book was kept, by the parents. Which in this town on Vanaheim was apparently a big deal, and to cover up a potential scandal, the parents had tried to insist that Loki was the priestess’s intended. Something that Loki did not particularly agree with, much to the priestess’s distress, hence Loki falling into Tony’s lab still partially on fire from her flames.

 

But instead of sharing Tony’s amusement, Bruce was giving Tony a look.

 

“What?” Tony asks, still chuckling over the story.

 

“Where’s Loki now?” Bruce asks.

 

“I don’t know,” Tony shrugs and looks closer at the hologram, double checking the diagram before turning back to the wiring in front of him. “Went off planet again.”

 

Silence meets his words and Tony sighs. Pausing in his work, he looks up at Bruce who is pinning him with a look.

 

“Why have you got such a frowney face on,” Tony asks. “It was meant to be a funny story.”

 

“Tony,” Bruce says in that calm, steady, am I really having to explain this voice. “You do realize that Loki was on fire and injured and chose to open a portal to your lab?”

 

Tony completely stops what he’s doing and stares back at Bruce. He hadn’t thought of that. Why had Loki come to Tony’s lab?

 

 Unbidden, the fond look Loki had given him yesterday jumps to the forefront of his mind, shoving away the equations and numbers that had been there previously and demanding attention. He expects the anxious knot to form in his stomach again, for some sort of panic to take over, but while he still feels unsettled, there's also a kind of calmness that settles in him. He thinks of Loki with fondness and enjoys the time they spend together, and if Loki wanted to choose his lab as a safe respite from whatever trouble Loki finds himself in, then Tony's not going to ruin that. 

 

So he gives Bruce a shrug, and allows the warmth that he may be gaining a friendship with the God spread just a little bit further through his body. "I don't know," he replies to Bruce, and grabs at the numbers that he needs to fulfill his project, bringing them back to the surface of his mind and bends down over the metal and wiring once again. 

 

4.

 

Over the next weeks though, Loki does begin to linger in the back of Tony’s mind. In the quiet times that he has, where he’s not concentrating on a project or talking with other members of the team, he wonders what Loki might be doing now, or on which realm he could be exploring right now. He wonders what kind of mischief he’s getting up to.

 

And in those times thinking about the god, he sometimes finds himself missing Loki. The first time it happens, he’s down in the workshop, making some adjustments to Rhodey’s suit when he remembers that green shimmer of magic, before Loki would teleport, remembers the way it felt when Loki would teleport him, how seamless it was, like he wasn’t moving his whole body across a significant distance in the span of a few seconds.

 

The idea grows in the back of his head as he continues to adjust the wiring in Rhodey’s suit, increasing the power to the legs repulsors by a fraction to account for the weight gain that the latest updates have caused. He’s already done the maths, teleportation isn’t possible with the science available at this point in time. But that answer has never satisfied Tony, the world says he can’t and he’ll just want to accomplish it more. Magic’s just science that we don’t understand yet.

 

There still remains to this day people on Earth, un-contacted tribes that remain oblivious to the 21st century technology. What would his suit look like to them? Pausing his work, he calls the armour forth, watching as the nanotechnology bleeds over his skin, forming a perfect red, gold and silver shell over his skin. This suit has withstood a tank shooting at him. They would certainly think of it as magic. Rotating his wrist, the armour disappears again, able to be called back and forth with a mere thought from him.

 

So everything the Asgardians can do, is possible, just out of his reach. Sighing, he looks around the empty lab. All the robots are in their charging stations, after the morning that they had spent with Harley and Parker, helping the boys with their projects that Tony had been strictly banned from seeing until its completion. The stillness of the lab sends a jab of melancholy through Tony. Once he had liked the lab as his personal working space, resenting even Pepper when she had come down to get his attention on something in the early stages of their relationship. But now he’s grown used to the lab being full of people. Bruce sharing a workbench or Rhodey coming down with a plateful of sandwiches, coaxing Tony out of his work with chats about everything and nothing or staying and helping Tony, fuelling the creation. Harley and Peter teaming up and laughing in their own corner of the lab. Loki poking at the various devices, asking questions and sometimes offering his own stories and knowledge in return for the answers that Tony gave him.

 

It’s the latter person that Tony’s mind turns to now. His mind burns with questions that he wants to ask the mage. If teleportation according to the physics that Tony knows now don’t apply to Asgardians then what rules does he follow? Are there any boundaries?

 

When his thoughts don’t somehow summon the God to materialise in the lab however, Tony turns back to the wiring, pushing the thought to the back of his mind, he makes a note to ask Loki when he sees him again. The next thought he pushes down there with a frustrated groan at Bruce for implying it, is the thought that he hopes that it is _when_ he sees the god, and not _if._

 

_~_

 

Loki does show up again. And as per the norm, he shows up in the most unexpected way. Tony is sitting on the couch, tapping a message out to Pepper about the time for their next roast dinner attempt, while he waits for the teenagers to argue it out over what kind of popcorn they want: sweet or salty, or both, before he can start the movie.

 

“You put up with this in your lab all day?” Rhodey grumbles from beside Tony, making Tony laugh.

 

He puts away his phone. “What? This is nothing,” he says. “That’s why they’re banished to their own corner and I let the bots deal with their antics.”

 

“Friday keeps them in check,” he adds when he sees Rhodey’s unimpressed expression.

 

“Oh that fills me with confidence,” Rhodey mutters. “Friday’s almost as bad as you.”

 

“Hey, my girl is awesome,” Tony protests.

 

“Thank-you, Boss and I heard that Colonel,” Friday says.

 

“Uh oh,” Tony teases. “Better apologise, you made the lady mad.”

 

Rhodey seems to be contemplating how on earth his life became like this before turning his head towards one of Friday’s numerous cameras. “Well there are fewer explosions happening in that lab than I remember in collage,” he says.

 

“And you’ll do well to remember that,” Friday says, but her voice is fond. All is apparently forgiven.

 

“Kids!” Tony shouts from his spot on the sofa. “Just make both! I don’t even care any more!”

 

Choruses of celebration can be heard coming from the kitchen, and the slap of a high five. Tony shakes his head in amusement.

 

“You’re such a pushover,” Rhodey says.

 

“I like not having a headache,” Tony protests, but Rhodey is laughing and it’s good to see so he leaves the comment on how good a role model he is slide.

 

“Oh good, we have arrived in time for a movie to commence!”

 

Tony definitely isn’t expecting Thor’s voice to announce his presence and startles on the couch, almost dropping his phone. He looks up, eyebrows rising when he sees not only Thor but Loki as well strolling into the compound’s living area, both dressed in casual clothes looking like they’re going to be joining them for the movie.

 

“Er hey guys?” Tony smiles at Thor who heads off straight into the kitchen, opening the cupboards and pulling out ingredients for a sandwich as though he had never gone off planet for a few months. Tony shakes his head and tilts his head over to Loki, who seems just at ease in his surroundings, despite hardly ever being inside the compound’s living areas.

 

“Thor has been nothing but hungry for the past day,” Loki explains and makes his way to sit on side of the couch next to Tony that isn’t occupied by Rhodey. He tucks his feet up underneath his body and leans back before turning to Tony with an amused smile.

 

“He touched something he shouldn’t have and got poisoned. Completely healed,” he waves off Rhodey’s sound of concern. “But it has left him with an apparently bottomless stomach. Nothing a few days of inactivity will cure, but I thought it best to take him some place where there is a billionaire to feed him,” Loki explains.

 

“Oh well in that case,” Tony says with sarcasm. “Welcome back, glad I could be of help.”

 

“Thank you my friend.” Thor comes up behind Tony and slaps him on the shoulder. Tony winces. “Anytime,” he mutters.

 

“So what movie are we to watch?” Thor asks, dropping himself and the pile of sandwiches he had made into the armchair.

 

“The Incredibles!” shout both Harley and Peter as they come back into the living room, each carrying a huge bowl of popcorn to themselves.

 

“We were outvoted,” Tony explains when Loki looks curious.

 

“Yeah,” Rhodey joins in. “You, Harley and Peter voted against me.”

 

“Honey Bear, you wanted to watch Mission Imposssible.”

 

“What’s wrong with Mission Impossible.”

 

“It’s not The Incredibles.”

 

“See what I have to put up with.”

 

A piece of popcorn is launched at Rhodey, bouncing off of his forehead and onto the floor.

 

“You two are cleaning up after the movie.” Tony turns and points a finger at the two teenagers who immediately begin to protest.

 

“Isn’t that what you built the cleaner bots for?” Harley whines.

 

“Yup,” Tony says. “And when you build some bots to clean up your messes, then you can make all the messes you want.”

 

“Oh can we!” Both boys jump up.

 

“Not now,” Tony laughs. “It was both of yours idea for a movie night in the first place.”

 

The boys sit back down with identical grins of mischief on their faces.

 

“Okay, Friday, dim the lights, start the film, if you would,” Tony asks. Friday complies immediately and Tony settles back into the couch.

 

Tony would have thought it is strange, sitting in the a dimly let room, lit only by the screen playing the movie, next to both Rhodey and Loki, but it feels normal. Loki stays quiet during most of the movie, hardly even moving except he does seem to relax slightly more, leaning back into the couch further so that his shoulder presses against Tony’s.

 

Tony can hardly concentrate on the movie, or the boys quiet chatter throughout and Rhodey’s occasional comment or Thor’s steady munching through his plate of sandwiches.

 

_You do realize that Loki was on fire and injured and chose to open a portal to your lab._

 

Bruce’s words run through Tony’s head and he wonders at the appearance of Loki, here tonight. Whatever the brothers had been doing, they had run into trouble, and once again Loki had chosen to come here as a place of safety, of recovery. The thought makes a pleased sort of warmth to grow inside of Tony’s chest.

 

But there’s still the confusion lingering. The question of why that keeps running through his mind, that he just wants to turn and ask the god.

 

But any kind of conversation will have to wait until the movie is over so Tony quietly sighs, settling himself further into the couch to try and concentrate on the rest of the film.

 

Which he manages. He had forgotten how much he enjoyed the film the first time he had watched it and soon gets pulled into the animation. Before long the credits are rolling and he blinks as he comes back to awareness of his surroundings. Thor is kneeling in front of him.

 

“Hey-” he begins but Thor quickly cuts him off.

 

“Anthony I would ask you not to move and to quieten your words,” Thor says in the quietest whisper he’s ever heard the god use.

 

“What?” Tony asks in confusion but then is suddenly aware of the weight that is pressing into his side. He turns his head as much as his restricted body allows and looks on in wonderment as he finds Loki with eyes shut and apparently completely and utterly asleep.

 

“I fear I may have underestimated the situation I found myself in,” Thor says, bringing Tony’s attention back to him. Thor is looking at them both with incredible fondness shining in his eyes. “Loki got us out, but drained his seidr by doing so. He needs to recover.”

 

“And he chose here?” Rhodey says. He’s looking at Loki with both of his eyebrows raised.

 

“I may not know my brother’s mind as I once thought I did,” Thor replies. “But I would hazard a guess that my brother has found a friend in Tony Stark.” He pats Tony’s leg and pushes himself to his feet. Tony just turns to look down at Loki, still sleeping peacefully despite the conversation happening around him.

 

“Rhodes, put the kid to bed,” he decides, looking over to the two teenagers who have also fallen asleep during the film. Picking up his phone he begins scrolling through the files. “I can work on some projects from here.”

 

Rhodey stands up, shaking his head down at Tony. “Get some rest also,” he says and then turns to Thor. “Help me with the kids,” he asks and Thor nods, heading over with Rhodey to pick Peter up.

 

Tony watches them leave and then puts his phone back down again. He watches Loki for a few seconds, eyes roaming over the god’s face, free of any mask or emotion for the first time since he has known the god.

 

“Friday, dim the lights right down,” Tony asks and then leans some of his own weight against Loki. He doesn’t question what he’s doing. Just decides to go with it. Closing his eyes, he lets the tiredness of the day take over his body and slips into slumber.

 

When he wakes up, Thor is still in the compound, making himself another sandwich, but Loki is nowhere to be seen.

 

5.

 

The next time Loki shows up, it’s the first time Tony isn’t surprised by his appearance, though he will say he’s surprised to see Loki so soon. It’s barely been a week since Loki had appeared with Thor. Thor still resides in the compound, and Valkyrie had shown up, steadily making her way through the bar and making Tony grateful he had stashed the more expensive bottles he owns at both Rhodey’s and Pepper’s houses.

 

But Loki had been absent, until now.

 

Tony’s in the gym, testing out the new dummies he had made for the practice sessions the New Avengers take part in several times a week. The previous ones Tony had found were too weak to stand up to the new recruits powers and he had had to spend a few weeks coming up with a design that could suitably withstand a session with them.

 

But as he turns to aim a repulsor blast at the last test dummy to stand, he finds his shot blocked by a shimmering green shield and the energy gets redirected sideways to blast away a chunk of the gym’s walls. Tony turns to look at the damage with surprise but has to hurry to put himself into a defensive position when he catches movement rapidly approaching him.

 

Loki is grinning as he attacks, and Tony barely has time to catch the fist that comes flying towards his shoulder, and then manoeuvre himself out of the way of Loki’s foot that is aimed towards his middle in the next second.

 

Loki doesn’t let up for a second, and Tony has no time to think, about what Loki is doing here, about why he seems to be sparring with Tony. It’s just a blur of trying to defend himself from Loki’s next punch or kick or magic. But at some point Tony begins to grin along with Loki as he gets into the rhythm of the fight. It becomes a dance, a give and take, as they battle to take the lead role, and Tony laughs as he manages to catch Loki unaware and gain the upper hand for a few seconds. He feels strong, his muscles beginning to burn with adrenaline that makes his body work faster than his brain. Sometimes he reacts without even knowing it, just letting his body take over with moves that he’s practised a thousand times and feeling the rush of power when he’s successful.

 

It’s fun, but Loki is an Asgardian god. There’s only so much time that Tony will be able to keep up with him, and eventually Loki wins, his movement too fast for Tony to dodge and he finds himself pinned up against the wall, breathing heavily inside his suit. Loki’s hands are on his upper arms, holding him firmly in place against the wall and Tony just laughs, letting his helmet dissolve so he can gulp in lungfuls of fresh air rather than the suit’s filtered air.

 

Loki is grinning back at him and he remembers the thought that had past through his head when he had seen Loki in the leather jacket, leaning oh so casually against a tree _._ _If only I was younger,_ he thinks again. It sobers Tony up a bit. He’s still smiling but his laughter dies down to chuckles before disappearing entirely. Loki is still holding him against the wall, his face incredibly close. Tony’s gaze drops to Loki’s lips before he realises what he done and brings his gaze back to Loki’s eyes. The green eyes have soften with Loki’s smile, and Tony is suddenly reminded of the first time he had seen Loki, in the Chitauri’s first invasion of New York. Tony remembers the desperate eyes in the gaunt face of madness.

 

 _I like seeing him happy,_ Tony thinks and then freezes as the next thought that follows is, _I wish I could see him happy all the time._

 

“So what brings you by, Lokes?” Tony grins and pushes Loki away from him as he feels the clench of panic begin to prickle up his arms. Loki goes easily, seemingly not holding Tony against the wall as forcibly as Tony had first thought.

 

Loki shrugs. He takes a step backwards and allows Tony to move away, to put some space between them. But he’s frowning and watching Tony’s movements. “Do I need a reason?” he asks in a slow measured tone that makes Tony think his sudden desire for space has not gone unnoticed.

 

“No,” Tony answers but raises an eyebrow, and lets his lips twitch up in amusement. “So there is no fire this time? Or a hungry Thor?”

 

He should have noticed it. Should have realised the signs of the same slow fall. He had done the exact same thing with Pepper. Coming into his life as a colleague, working their way into his life as friends, until they were a part of his life that he struggled to think of without. And then the fall into something more. It had been a sudden realisation with Pepper as well, but he had been dying, and it was only the adrenaline of the battle won, the knowledge that he had fixed the Arc Reactor that made him move forward and kiss her on the rooftop and gain her as a partner.

 

And now he was back in the exact same position. Loki was a god, with a life span of perhaps thousands of years. He had perhaps ten or twenty years left. Loki had just improved in his health, his skin showing no sign that he had aged a day since his first appearance in New York. Tony’s body was a map work of all the battles he had fought, and he had been fine with this. He had made peace with his break-up with Pepper, realising that had probably been his last shot at a relationship. He had his friendships and in a way a feeling of parentage towards Peter and Harley, and overseeing the new recruits on the team, watching as they took the future in their own hands.

 

But now, he wants more.

 

Tony looks back up at Loki, realising the god had been quiet while Tony began to panic, to find Loki already looking at him, green gaze sharp and shrewd. But there was no other tell on his face, whatever he was feeling or thinking, wiped cleaned into a perfect mask.

 

Tony tries to smile, but knows he’s failing miserably. “Lokes?” he asks and tries to ignore the way Loki is looking at him is making his heart jump and stutter.

 

“You have not figure out what the gems are, have you?” Loki says and he’s suddenly smirking, eyes going from calculating to sparking with mischief in a second.

 

“What? Gems?” Tony asks. He tries to get his mind to switch tracks, wondering why on earth Loki is suddenly mentioning the gems he had given Tony months ago.

 

“Yes, the gems. Where are they?” Loki crosses back over to Tony until he’s just in front of Tony once again, personal space non-existent. Tony tries to take a step back, but Loki takes a hold of his wrist, the grip firm but Tony could probably pull away. He doesn’t. “Where are they?” Loki repeats.

 

“Lab,” Tony answers and the gym is disappearing. The white walls get replaced with the dark grey of his lab, the shattered remains of the dummies replaced with the numerous projects left out in half done stages.

 

As soon as the lab has properly materialised, Loki was pulling away from him, leaving him standing in the middle of the lab feeling like he’s about ten steps behind. It’s not a feeling he’s used to, even as a child he had always been ahead of everyone.

 

Loki is soon back by his side though and he’s smiling, one of his rarer and softer smiles that Tony would always try to unconsciously seek. Loki grabs a hold of Tony again, this time slipping his hand further down so he can entwine his fingers with Tony’s. Tony looks down, feeling the gems sit in-between their clasped hands.

 

Loki doesn’t speak but he does bring up his other hand to Tony’s waist, fingers brushing against the fabric of his t-shirt for a brief second. Tony is completely lost now.

 

“You should look around you, Stark,” Loki says and his smile has the sharp edges of a smirk to it again.

 

Tony blinks. He hadn’t even realised he had been staring up at Loki. He jerks his head around and gasps. Loki had teleported them again, and the two of them our standing in a forest clearing. But it’s not any forest on Earth. Tony can tell that straight away. He pulls away from Loki, letting the gems drop into Loki’s waiting hand, and walks towards the nearest tree. The bark is chestnut brown, and feels just like any bark that could be found on Earth, but it’s the sheer size that has Tony reaching out and touching it. The base of the trunk spans the length of several parked cars, and if Tony looks up he can’t even make out the canopy. The trunk just keeps on going, disappearing into clouds. It makes Tony itch to call the suit, to fly up and see if he can find the top.

 

The thought must have started the boots to form around his feet because he can hear Loki chuckle and then a hand sits itself on his shoulder. “Later, Stark.”

 

Tony turns and Loki hands fall from his shoulder. “Where are we?” he asks. Surrounding them are more of the same impressive trees, so close together that it makes the forest almost completely dark.

 

“Vanaheim,” Loki answers and then begins to walk away.

 

“Vanaheim,” Tony repeats in a softer voice, and he gazes around him, taking in the trees. "Wait! Vanaheim!" the word suddenly catches up with Tony and he hurries after Loki. "As in the actual, another of the nine realms, Vanaheim?"

 

"Yes," Loki says and then, "keep up."

 

"Right yeah, sorry, I'll keep the freaking out of being on a completely different realm to a minimum then," Tony retorts. 

 

"That would be good," Loki replies without missing a beat. 

 

Tony sighs, and keeps his curiosities about the strange animals he sees lurking in the sometimes even stranger foliage to himself, concentrating instead on keeping up with Loki.

 

They don’t walk far. And it’s only when Loki pauses briefly and pushes at something that Tony realizes that they’ve walked to a house, perfectly hidden within the darkened forest environment. Loki quickly disappears inside, leaving little time for Tony to observe the house as he follows the god.

 

“Lokes?” Tony asks as he gets inside and coughs. The air is damp and cold, the smell of a place that hasn’t been used in a long time, ripe in the air.

 

“In here,” Loki’s calls out from Tony’s left. Tony follows the sign, wincing when his footfalls cause the floorboard to creak.

 

The next room Tony enters is lit up with a ball of light hovering in Loki’s palm. He’s facing towards Tony another small smile upon his face. In his other hand, the one not currently providing light, he’s holding out the gems again toward Tony.

 

Tony sighs and meets Loki in the middle of the room. He’s long since given up trying to figure out what Loki is up to. Raising his hand to meet Loki’s he lets the god pour the gems into his palm, like he had all those months ago on a New York street.

 

“So where are we, and are you going to tell me what these gems are?” Tony asks.

 

“They are gems,” Loki shrugs and Tony resists sighing again.

 

“So they are just gems?” he asks.

 

“Yes and no.” For a moment Loki looks frustrated, and he turns away from Tony. “Close your eyes,” he says. Tony complies. He trusts Loki and wants the answer to these gems, to whatever Loki is doing.

 

“The God who owned this house, used to be the Master at Arms for the young Asgardians for Odin’s court. He trained Thor, he trained me, and many other also,” Loki tells him.

 

“For centuries he resided in Asgard, but he always belonged here in Vanaheim, in the forest. So when he retired, he moved back here, spent the last of his days here.” Loki laughs. “It annoyed Odin to no end. Because Odin could never find this place, and with him, the God took with him, his prized daggers.”

 

“No one figured out where or how he had gotten them. They didn't even know if he had made them himself, and if he had, what materials he used. No one knew. Except me,” Loki continues and Tony can imagine the smirk building on his face to go with that gloating tone. Tony stays silent, interested in the story.

 

“As I grew, he noticed that he and I were becoming similar of builds. Whereas Thor and other Asgardians would become more muscular, he and I shared a slimmer build. So he began spending more time with me, training me with daggers and spears. Teaching me how to be quick and resourceful.”

 

Tony began to smile, imagining a younger Loki with a sensei of sorts, trading blows with daggers and fists.

 

“The only thing we didn’t share was a rigid sense of honour and a hero complex,” Loki says and Tony snorts.

 

“I can imagine that,” Tony retorts and hears a chuckle from Loki.

 

“But despite his disapproval of my tricks, we still grew close. He showed me this place, his home, took me on tours of Vanaheim like only one born to it would know. And he told me about the daggers.”

 

“They were beautiful things." Loki's voice takes on a tone of reverence. "Two golden curved double blades bound in the middle with a hilt of red leather. They weren’t technically daggers, as they were almost as big as me when I was a couple of hundred years old, equivalent of your four year olds.”

 

Tony can hear the smile in Loki’s voice, the utter respect and awe he must have for these weapons and feels a little jealous.

 

“Can you imagine them?” Loki asks all of a sudden with a voice that is much closer than before. “Imagine the golden blades gleaming in the sunlight, the curved edges wicked sharp. Imagine the red leather tightly woven around the hilt and the smell of oil of a whetstone still fresh on the metal.”

 

Surprisingly, Tony can imagine them. The daggers come clearly into his mind. Two great daggers, curving and glinting in the light. He nods.

 

“Open your eyes,” Loki says and Tony obeys. Loki is absolutely beaming, an ecstatic look on his face. But he’s not looking at Tony, he’s looking down, at Tony’s hands. Following his gaze, Tony gets his second shock of the day. The daggers Loki had described in the story, that Tony could imagine so clearly in his mind, were now held tight in his grasp. Tony brings his hand up slowly. The gems are gone, and the leather in his hand feels real, it feels like he’s holding the dagger, the weight heavy and solid.

 

“What the-” Tony says.

 

“The God also took a human lover," Loki continues. "A human on Earth that lived millennia before your era and who also happened to be a gifted mage. But who didn’t choose to share immortality with his Norse God. At the end of his life, he gave the God these gems and said, whatever you will want these to be, they will become. So they are gems, and they are not at the same time. They’re whatever you want them to be. I just gave you the form they’re most used to taking.”

 

“Loki.” Tony looks back up from the dagger, to Loki with wonder. “Why did you give me these?”

 

"Truthfully," Loki says and his mouth twists, but Tony makes an encouraging noise, his gaze slipping back down to the daggers. They're beautiful and feel strangely warm in his hand. He wants to know more about them. 

 

"I had forgotten about them... until I saw your latest armour model, in the fight against Thanos." 

 

Tony looks back up at Loki, and then back down to his arm. The armour shows itself, crawling over his fingers, even fitting itself underneath the grip he has on the daggers. 

 

"I also believed you are one of the very few who could use them.”

 

“What?” Tony queries, his gaze still trained on his gauntlet covered hand. There's a ringing in his ears, a dryness in his mouth and Tony swallows. He feels overwhelmed and apprehensive of what Loki is about to say. 

 

“When the God passed away, I looked after the gems. But I couldn’t use them myself. Another one of the mage’s tricks. He wanted his lover to be the only one to be able to use them. And he truly loved his Norse God, believed him to be the best of humanity. So he willed that only those kind and loyal, strong and capable of enduring hardship without it allowing to burn out their light, would be able to use the gems." 

 

Tony’s breath catches in his throat. He stares at Loki, the words running on repeat through his head.

 

“And you gave them...”

 

“To you,” Loki finishes for Tony. “And you were able to turn the gems into something more than what they seemed.”

 

Tony can’t speak, can only shake his head as he continues to stare at Loki. Loki, who is looking back at him with an unwavering gaze. 

 

"i would make you an offer, Tony Stark," Loki adds, voice growing serious and Tony just shakes his head. He can't, he can' think. 

 

“You have your world,” Loki continues on unperturbed by Tony's silence. “But new heroes are rising up to protect your world. You’re not going to be needed forever.”

 

At that, Tony huffs a laugh. “Thanks, Lokes,” he croaks out. 

 

“What I’m proposing is an opportunity for you to leave your realm and to travel the nine realms. See all the realms have to offer and to continue on creating and living.”

 

Tony is already shaking his head. “Lokes, I have about twenty years tops. And I can’t just up and leave, not like you and Thor or the Guardians.” _There’s Pepper and Rhodey, and Peter and Harley that he wants to watch grow up and become the heroes they want to be,_ he thinks but doesn’t voice.

 

“I know,” Loki agrees. “Which is why I’m offering you an extended life also. Live out the rest of your days on Midgard as you would, watch the kids grow up and your friends live well. And then…” Loki trails off and for the first time since Loki had brought Tony to this place, looks nervous. Tony watches as Loki's finger twitch against his side, and the light flickers in his palm. Loki takes a breath.

 

“Come with me,” Loki finishes in a soft voice.

 

For a moment Tony imagines it. Remembers the tree outside, taller and thicker than he imagined trees could become and then moves onto what else the realms could offer him. Imagines what he could create with the knowledge of all nine realms at his fingertips. Because with Loki it would. He remembers the time in their lab before Thanos, learning and trading knowledge and he thinks about having a lifetime of the same.

 

“I’ll think about it,” he says.

 

+1

 

Tony does think about Loki’s offer. In the days and months and years that follow, when he’s watching the Avenger’s new recruits battle and train and save the day without him. When he finds out about the girl called Riri Williams, who manages to reverse engineer his Iron Man suit in her dorm room he thinks maybe this is a sign to hang in the towel. When Rhodey talks to him about retiring, spending the last of his days with Carol and the daughter that is due on the horizon, Tony confides about Loki’s offer and how tempted he is to take it, yet also terrified. But it isn’t until Pepper sits down to discuss what’s going to happen to the company when they’re both gone, Tony takes a breath and tells her in turn, about Loki’s offer. Pepper frowns and it’s a long conversation, lasting until well into the small hours of the morning. But it ends with him and Pepper hugging, tears in her eyes and Tony holding her just that little bit tighter than he normally would have done, but he thinks he’s made his decision.

 

In the years that follow, Loki continues to stop by, sometimes once a week, sometimes Tony doesn’t see him for months. Sometimes Loki only stays for a few hours, sometimes he’s here for a couple of weeks, but every time Tony watches him go, he begins to feel wistful and starts to think, _I want to follow him. I want to see what he is seeing._ And that cements the decision in the end.

 

Tony has more grey hairs than brown by the time Loki returns, one evening, and Tony just looks at him and nods. Loki understands it instantly and grins broadly at him. The next second Tony is swept up in a hug and they’re both laughing, and Tony is enjoying the feeling of Loki’s arms around him. He never acts on the revelation of his feelings in the gym all those years ago. If he decides not to go with Loki then he only has a few years left to live and while he would have loved to spend those years with Loki at his side, in his bed and on his arm at the Stark events that still need his presence, he is also happy to leave those feelings be, so they can’t grow into anything bigger and make him regret his mortal lifespan and eventual death.

 

But he and Loki grow closer regardless. When Loki appears they spend their time together researching magic and science combined, blending both their talents into one and seeing what they can create. Tony’s armour is now half marked with wards and runes, protecting himself even more and adding some pretty bad ass offensive weapons. The gems have their own little nock to reside in the armour also, and Tony is able to use them, letting them shift forms into the dagger that Loki had shown him, or a shield, or whatever Tony feels the situation calls for.

 

But the both of them can also spend time, just relaxing around Planet Earth. Tony will mention places he’ll want to show Loki, and Loki will teleport them and they’ll act like total tourists, snapping selfies of themselves, and daring each other to try the most outlandish local cuisine. Loki usually wins the latter as the food on Asgard, Tony has come to learn can be pretty outrageous. But Tony wins with the former, often pulling a disgruntled Loki into the frame on his phone, and making the silliest face possible. #OnTheRoad has been trending on Twitter on multiple occasions with people retweeting and imitating him with their own photos.

 

* * *

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

It’s a good few years, but when Tony stands on edge of a cliff, a roaring black sea in front of him, with a million unknown stars that swirl within galaxies of red blue and green spreading out across the horizon, he knows he’s made the right decision. Loki’s arm rest upon his shoulders, the God as close to his side as can be, relaxed and laughing at Tony’s wonder wide eyes. He feels young as well, the golden apple that Loki had given him, making him look and feel like he’s in his 30’s again.

 

“Welcome to the Nine realms, Stark,” Loki says, still chuckling. “Regret your decision.”

 

Tony snorts. He turns and regards Loki. "Isn't it about time you call me by something other than my last name?" he says. 

 

Loki looks down at him, tilting his head. "Like perhaps, Tony?" Tony continues, but Loki pulls a face. 

 

"I think Anthony Stark suits the nine realms better," Loki says. 

 

 ~ Fin 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> I wrote this as pre-slash but originally had it planned as Loki and Tony getting together eventually. So if you'd like to see the get together, I wrote a short follow up epilogue for you to enjoy if you so wish!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And for those interested in seeing Loki and Tony get together here's the epilogue!

“We should have been robbed three times by now. I miss that charm,” Loki says while staring around at the market stalls with a put out expression on his face.

 

Tony chuckles. “Only you would miss being robbed,” he teases while trying to take in everything at once. Tony had been travelling with Loki for two years now, from Vanaheim’s great forests, where the trees would reach up into the clouds and was Tony’s first request on where he wanted to go, to their latest exploration trip. The market stalls of Niflheim were shrouded in the realm’s mist that kept the place in an almost constant darkness. Due to the lack of light, or at least Tony assumed it was because of a lack of light, the plant life of the realm had evolved to become darker in colour, varying from shades of dark brown and green to completely black, except for tiny bubbles of light shining like beacons in the dark along the stalks and leaves of the plants. It was beautiful, and kind of creepy, but a sight to see all the same, and definitely one that Tony was glad to see and cross off his Nine realm must visit list. 

 

“I don’t miss being robbed,” Loki contradicts and brings Tony’s attention from trying to peer through the mist and see what is for sale on the stalls they’re passing by. “I miss the attempts people make and then the enjoyment I get from putting them in their place.”

 

“Well perhaps your reputation precedes you- oh what is that!” Tony counters and then jumps to the side, eyes on device he can see lying on the stall closer to him. He can hear Loki’s heavy sigh behind him, but ignores it as he gets closer to the small box like device with various buttons on it. “Is that what I think it is?” He turns to Loki with excitement and then turns back around, almost colliding with the stall that was a lot closer than he realized in his excitement.

 

“It is- mpfh.” Loki’s hand comes to cover over his mouth, the mage suddenly pressed up behind him before Tony can finish his sentence. He shifts his head up to try and glare at Loki but Loki only presses tighter, his left arm coming around Tony’s waist and then pulling him back a step.

 

“Guel,” Loki says, the word carrying over Tony’s head and ruffling his hair. Tony shivers and relaxes against Loki. He’s tempted to lick against Loki’s hand, a childish gesture that would probably gain him absolutely nothing. But in actual fact he’s kind of enjoying having Loki so close. Travelling with Loki through the nine realms and making plans for the planets beyond in the next few years, had done nothing to ease the crush he had developed on Loki during the time on Earth after Thanos’s invasion, in fact it had only grown until now sometimes Tony has to groan at himself and the sheer amount of pining he does for Loki. He’s honestly surprised Loki hasn’t noticed.

 

“Loki,” the man on the other side of the stall greets with a grim smile. “I heard you were back wrecking havoc across the realms again.”

 

“And I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you. Business not going so well? Just how did one of the Asgard’s finest traders get to selling assorted junk on Niflheim?” Loki retorts and it’s then that Tony begins to realise how tense Loki is behind him. Loki’s words could be taken for only lightly teasing the other man, but his fingers are digging into Tony’s waist and his body is a rigid line of tension behind him. Tony leans back, lifting his head as much as he can to try and see Loki’s face, but Loki presses down on his mouth even more, a firm order of don’t move.

 

“No thanks to you,” the stall keeper, Guel, Loki had called him, growls the smile dropping from his face all together. Milky pale eyes are suddenly glaring at Loki, but then slip down to Tony, a smile blooming on his face.

 

“Oh but, I think your companion is interested in my business. Why don’t you allow him to speak?” Guel’s simpering and nasal tone sends a shiver down Tony’s spine. Guel is eyeing him with the same kind of look Tony grew up bearing. A look that said the person was very interested in Tony’s fame or wealth, or body to use for their own personal gain, but had very little interest in Tony himself.

 

“He can live with the disappointment,” Loki says and pulls himself and Tony back another step.

 

“Oh, but I think you owe me one Loki. And I can see much potential in your companion. Give him to me and I may just allow you to leave here alive.”

 

Shadows move in the mist, getting stronger and bolder until Tony is watching what seems like a small army emerge from the mist.

 

 _“Right, that’s it,_ Tony thinks, just as he hears Loki growl a very firm, “no.”

 

Pushing away from Loki, he lets the Iron-man armour crawl over his skin, but leaves the helmet off. “His companion can speak for himself,” he says to Guel, giving him a glare before turning his head to grin back at Loki. “About time to test it out don’t you think?”

 

For a moment Loki actually seems worried, his gaze roaming across Tony’s face but then he sighs and grins back. Reaching out a hand, Tony feels the moment Loki’s magic pushes into his suit, making the metal vibrate before it hits the wards Loki had placed in the armour and then suddenly the gauntlets are ablaze with blue fire, the flames licking up the metal and lighting up the dark realm.

 

Tony grins bright and excited, lets the helmet complete the armour over his face and turns back to the gathering aliens.

 

“I’ve decided I don’t want any of your wares after all,” Tony says and then launches himself forward. There’s a huge amount of enemies moving towards them, a seeming never ending wave after wave of grey skinned, milky eyed creatures clambering over one another, each trying to reach Tony and Loki first and deliver that killing blow. But they do seem to be weak to fire, some of them even flinching when confronted with the light from Tony’s flames. The magic only lasts so long though, Loki’s seidr draining from the suit with every second and soon Tony is back to using repulsor blasts to keep the foes at bay.

 

“I blame you for this,” he says when the fight throws him and Loki together, their stances automatically putting them back to back. “We should have been robbed three times by now. I miss that charm,” Tony repeats. “I hope.” Tony kicks out as one of the creatures tries to latch it’s teeth onto his armour. “Your.” He fires a blast into the crowd, making them pause for a second to dodge the blast. “Entertained now,” he finishes. He whirls around and grabs Loki around the waist, and launches them into the air.

 

"Yeah, that's right, I can fly!" he shouts back down to the creatures who are wailing and screaming, attempting to jump up and grab him still. Tony laughs at the attempts and then blasts off, travelling miles away from the encounter in just a few seconds. 

 

“You know, I’m not so keen to check out the Misty Market anymore,” he says flying them to what he judges to be a safe distance away before beginning to descend. “It’s lost it’s charm.”

 

“Well at least we know the wards work,” Loki says as Tony puts him down. They’re somewhere in a forest clearing now, the fog less dense so Tony can see a little through the trees thanks to the bioluminescence light that covers all the plant life on this realm. But his attention his soon brought back to Loki by the god chuckling.

 

“I hope your not losing your interest in exploring the nine realms?” Loki asks and Tony walks over to him letting the armour dissolve. Loki is putting away his knives, cleaning them with a wave of magic before slipping them back into into the various straps located on his armour and the image makes a wave of fondness rush through Tony that he thinks, _why am I being so ridiculous?_ Tony grins the narrow escape and joy he feels fighting with Loki making him feel like he wants to laugh and never stop, so the moment he’s close enough to Loki, he’s gets his hands on the mage’s leather armour and pulls Loki down towards him.

 

“Absolutely not,” Tony answers and then closes the remaining distance between him and Loki, kissing him. He has a second to regret his decision, for a flash of panic to grip his mind in a cruel grasp that whispers, _oh I hope I haven’t screwed everything up with acting on this desire._ But then he feels Loki’s fingers come up, gripping Tony’s shirt and tugging him closer and Loki is very eagerly responding to the kiss.

 

It’s about as awesome and as fantastic as Tony had been thinking of, but eventually he has to pull away, his breath heavier than it had been during their brief fight with the creatures.

 

“Umm,” Tony says. He’s grinning, feeling almost as if he’s drunk.

 

But Loki doesn’t seemed to be having any such trouble. He’s smiling also, and his hands now just resting on Tony’s waist sneak under the fabric and stoke a couple of times against the skin. “Finally, Anthony," he says and then leans forward, whispering his next words against Tony's ear. "How about we pay a visit to that hotel you liked in Alfheim, and this time take advantage of the baths?”

 

Tony shivers at the promise held in Loki’s voice, before replying, “I think I can get behind that idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And everything is happy and fine! Tony and Loki continue to travel the realms and then further out into the universe, with earth protected by the continuing rise of new heroes, and everything is just happy!


End file.
